Our unbecoming education system

By Herbert Vego

MY niece Lenny – having spent elementary to secondary levels in private schools – asked me why we (referring to her mother and us her mom’s siblings) had studied in public schools during our time.

I frankly told the young girl that since our own parents were not as affluent as her mother is now, they had no choice but to send us to tuition-free public elementary and high schools so that they could save for our education in private colleges later.

Whether public or private, education has always been viewed as an avenue to a better quality of life, providing equal opportunities to the rich and the poor alike.

In my grade-school years in the 1950s, all public elementary and high school students were supplied textbooks which we would return at the end of the school year, to be used by the next batch next year.

Today, with around 24 million students enrolled in the country’s public schools, the government can’t build enough classrooms. Based on latest data from the Department of Education (DepEd), the country has a shortage of 160,000-plus classrooms, while about 122,000 classrooms have already exceeded the standard 25-year design life.

The poor parents always think of public education for their children within the context of poverty alleviation. The more and better educated the people, the greater their chances of “graduating” from the bondage of misery.

The country was simply not investing enough in the education system; and the education establishment had been poorly managed.

The rural areas and the countryside – where some public schools had a teacher-to-pupil ratio of 1:50 — are the worst affected areas of the deteriorating quality of public education in the Philippines.

The rich have a variety of choices offered by the private educational institutions with modern school facilities, while the poor make do with public education characterized by dilapidated school facilities, lack of textbooks and technological incompetence.

The government had failed to bring quality education directly to the poorest people in the country, denying their children access to quality education.

Fortunately, the passage of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (Republic Act No. 10931) in 2017 made free tuition available to undergraduate Filipino students in 112 state universities and colleges and, under certain conditions, local universities and colleges, and state-run technical-vocational institutions.

Under this law, Filipino students pursuing their first bachelor’s degree or comparable undergraduate degree are exempt from paying tuition and other school fees.

In 2024, the University of the Philippines (UP) launched the “Lingap Iskolar” program that provides PHP 165,000 in financial aid to young people who qualify, especially those from poor families in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas.

According to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), roughly 50% of tertiary students in the Philippines are now enrolled in public universities and colleges.

But it’s no good news for the private schools because there has been a gradual exodus of college students from private to government schools.

The most visible reason for such an exodus is the continuing tuition hikes in private colleges and universities that force students to either drop out or to transfer to cheaper state institutions.

Unfortunately, state schools do not readily absorb transferees due to their limited enrolment quotas. Moreover, educational expenditures in state schools and universities have made them also inaccessible to ordinary students.

Ironically, in search of greener pastures, graduates of either private or public schools strive to work abroad. In effect, the Philippine education system subsidizes the affluent economies hosting the overseas Filipino workers, thus defeating its purpose of boosting local enterprises.